Did you know ... On 19 July 1960 Australia's first reported aircraft skyjacking/hijacking took place. It occurred over Brisbane in a Trans Australian Airlines Lockheed Electra. The hijacker Alex Hildebrandt, age 22, was disarmed during the flight and arrested in Sydney NSW when the plane landed.

Hildebrandt, who was born in Russia in 1938, faced serious charges of attempted murder, having an explosive detonating device with the intention of destroying the aircraft and having explosives capable of causing injuries to persons on board.

He successfully appealed the sentence in the Queensland Criminal Court as he argued that the aircraft which was thirty five minutes into the flight, was over New South Wales when he armed the explosives in the aircraft toilet.

Hildebrandt served a three-year sentence in Brisbane, for attempted murder and on discharge was arrested by detectives from New South Wales. He faced court again and was convicted on the charge of attempted destruction of an aircraft and he spent seven more years in prison in New South Wales.